Australia to detain tourists who overstay visa, minister says

Australia will detain tourists who overstay visas to send a message of deterrence under new rules aimed at reducing levels of migration, a minister said on Friday.

Australia's ruling Labor party has denied it is tightening visa rules in response to the rise of the far-right One Nation, which has become one of the country's most popular parties this year with pledges to drastically slash migration.

Under reforms announced Thursday, Australia will stop family members accompanying students, introduce ballots for working holiday makers and crack down on overstayers.

Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Matt Thistlethwaite said on Friday that tourists would be put in immigration detention to reduce the level of visa overstayers, which has risen to 77,000.

"Once the word gets around, 'hey, I overstayed on my tourist visa for a couple of weeks, I got picked up and I spent a couple of weeks in immigration detention, it's not a nice place, I'm going home'. Once that gets around, then we think that obviously that deterrence will ensure that people abide by the conditions," he told broadcaster News24.

People who don't have the right to remain in Australia will face a "consequence" and be removed, he added.

Since 2015, Australia's immigration detention centres have swelled with people with criminal convictions awaiting deportation after a policy change that saw mandatory cancellation of permanent visas for certain criminal offences.

Immigration Minister Tony Burke, announcing the new policy on Thursday, said the government would open 250 beds and add 100 compliance officers to house the visa overstayers in different facilities.

Australian Tourism Industry Council chief executive Erin McLeod said talk of detaining tourists was not good for Australia's image.

"I don't think it does our reputation as a welcoming destination any good and can become quite damaging -- tourism is an important part of the Australian economy," she told AFP.

The council represents thousands of small tourism businesses.

Refugee Council of Australia director of policy Rebecca Eckard said the move raised safety and legal concerns.

"It is being framed as punitive to change behaviour. The use of punitive detention is not permitted under Australia's immigration act," she told AFP.

"There has been a major problem with immigration detention," she added, pointing to concerns raised by the government ombudsman over insufficient staffing and healthcare access.